Although not the crown prince, Kuwait's Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah is still "untouchable" to parliament, and his reappointment only perpetuates the government's continuing stalemate with itself.

Gulf parliaments have come to provide some semblance of democratic representation, but all are struggling against dominant regimes and must organize politically and carve out a distinctive role to better represent the people.

Kuwait remains a classic rentier state, living on natural resources alone and unwilling or unable to diversify, reform, democratize, or otherwise change for the better. If anything, the emirate should be wallowing deeper in autocracy as state dependence on oil rises. Yet the politics of the country belie this.

In what will be remembered as the year of the woman in Kuwait, Prime Minister Sabah Ahmad Al Sabah on June 12 appointed Massouma Almubarak as Minister of Planning and Administrative Development. Just one month earlier, the feisty Kuwaiti parliament gave women the vote after having resisted the Emir's initiative since 1999. These steps have changed politics in Kuwait permanently.